In particular one of the problems arising in connection with outdoor ponds is that wind blown debris such as plant seeds, seed cases, falling leaves etc., are able readily to fall on to the water surface and eventually sink to the bottom.
In addition, wind blown soil and/or dust can over a period of time accumulate in significant quantities within a pond.
Additional to such above mentioned materials there are the organic waste materials being produced by fish and any other aquatic creatures that may be present in the pond.
Over period of years the amounts of various types of detritus material accumulating in a pond can assume considerable proportions leading to a layer on a pond of several centimetres in depth.
A consequence of the presence of fish particularly fish fry or other small aquatic creatures within a pond is that it becomes very difficult to remove any materials deposited on the bottom of the pond without running the risk of harming such fish fry and other small creatures when attempting to remove the material, for example, by attempting to dredge the pond bottom with a container or by ladling or the like since such action produces stirring effects that distributes the waste material into the water. This stirring renders removal of the stirred material very difficult.
In order to deal with this problem it has been proposed to use an electrically operable vacuum cleaner type apparatus containing a combined motor housing and some form of container for receiving removed detritus material. When in use the apparatus is positioned adjacent to the pond and a suction head/nozzle connected to an elongate flexible tubular member serving as liquid conduit is used to ‘sweep’ the pond bottom, with the material sucked in by the head/nozzle travelling by way of conduit to a container the latter being located at the pond side for later removal from the apparatus.
Thus in operation water and debris is sucked out from the pond and is delivered into the container. The liquid entraining the detrius/waste material from the pond to the container is discharged either back into the pond or by way of a discharge pipe to an appropriate location for receiving such liquid discharge.
In practice it has-been found that the known apparatus involves inherent handling problems particularly in relation to the physical control of the ongoing operational positioning of the suction head/nozzle of the apparatus.
It is an object of the present invention to provide vacuum cleaners suitable for use in the removal of detritus from the bottom of a volume of water such as water within outdoor ponds and water features which are of such construction as to facilitate the operational handling thereof.